The migrants reached MP by Monday evening. (Express photo by Bhupendra Rana)
The blistering sun beats down on the concrete surface of the Vadodara-Halol highway on Sunday afternoon as 24-year-old Vikram Rai stops to take a break near Jarod village in Vadodara district after cycling a distance of 173 km from Surat.
The journey began at 2 am Saturday, when Vikram and five others packed their belongings in grain stocking bags, securing them to their brand new cycles purchased from a local dealer for Rs 4,500. The cycle is their only hope of covering the 1,400-odd km distance to reach their homes in Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh.
“We are homesick… There is no work in Surat and we have run out of money. Our families are worried. At least we can be together at this time,” Vikram says.
By late Monday evening they crossed over to Madhya Pradesh.
Vikram and his group of friends worked for a wholesale saree dealer, who, according to them, has “stopped answering calls”, knowing they will demand money.
Sumair, another one from the group, says, “Our money is finished. We had our last couple of thousands and we heard from other migrant friends about this person who was selling cycles… Many of our acquaintances bought cycles to go back to Rajasthan, Orissa and MP..”
When asked, why the group could not wait for the Uttar Pradesh state government to fetch them as announced by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, they say, “Kab lene aayenge? Hum mar jayein uske baad? Ek mahine se toh kisi ne haal bhi nahi poocha… (When will they come to fetch us? After we die? None has enquired about us for over a month)… But if they do send the buses to take us, we will take the ride midway from wherever we are at that point.”
Vikram says, “I will fill water from petrol pumps on the way. We have faith that we will meet good people on the way who will give us food. Even one meal can help us through the day. We are also trying to charge our phones at petrol pumps for a few minutes to keep it going.”
The group is aware that the journey ahead — if they are allowed to cross state borders — is very long. “We think it will take us about nine days to reach home. We haven’t informed our families because they will be worried. They have watched in the news that some migrant workers died out of exhaustion from all the walking last month. My mother was pleading with me not to walk, so I decided to buy the cycle,” Vikram says.
The group has decided not to return to Surat for work again. “I am not coming back to work here or anywhere else. This crisis has taught me that there is nothing like being close to your family. We live in cities in deplorable conditions… If something like this happens, we will die and be cremated without even our family seeing us. It is not worth it. So, I am definitely going to find some work around my house and stay close to my family,” says Sumair.